Dark Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 i had a mercury therm until recently - very fast to tell the temp and accurate too; temp range from -50 to +250. it was from a chemistry lab. it met the floor at high speed and shattered and lots of little highly reflective balls of liquid (mercury) went everywhere... gutted. the floating ones are a therm in a glass tube and so they are slower to react to temperature changes - i think the extra layer is for bouyancy and protection, most likely the former. i tried using the digital ones, but i have three of them and they all read different temps when placed in the same tank - can be out by about 3 deg in either direction! my old man has what i think is the ultimate temperature measuring device, similar to this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002Z07QA/002-9677788-9569630?v=glance&n=228013 it uses infrared to gauge the temperature of an object and has a laser pointer to aid with aiming it. great for telling which beer is the coolest :)and you can stand on one side of the room and check all your tanks without moving but without going overboard, a medical or lab thermometer is probably your best bet - i'm getting another one to replace the one i smashed, and i'll be keeping it in a safer place next time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharronpaul Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 The red stuff in them is alcohol with a dye added. I use a laboratory mercury thermometer, was calibrated by SGS in New Plymouth, but, as said above, the finger test in the tank works just as well. The thermometer is just a check. A while ago, I bought pair of the three dollar thermometers from our LFS - one read 21 deg, one read 27 deg, and the lab thermo read 25.7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 I think the finger test is a crap way to test the tank temperature. Well, unless my thermometers read really low in the winter and my tanks are actually spa water temp, but read too high in the summer when my tanks are actually cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharronpaul Posted May 2, 2006 Report Share Posted May 2, 2006 Let me qualify my statement a little... Our fish rooms are all at pretty much fixed temperatures year round, and a finger is a good comparative measure between tanks. Crap? Not really, just a reflection of the fact that despite being subjective a finger is a quick check, and if you want to know the temp exactly you should use a thermometer in any case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted May 3, 2006 Report Share Posted May 3, 2006 I heard that finger test is used in psychology examples. Because if you put your finger in when you're cold, the water seems relatively warm and vice versa. It totally depends on the temperature of your skin. It's different when comparing tank to tank to tank because it's almost certain one of them will be at the right temp. Dave (waikato pres) said he nearly killed an angel once because he and a mate were temporarily putting some fish in a bath and thought 'it wasn't warm enough'. In saying that I have a few times put my hand in a tank and thought that feels way too cold, and i check and the heater is unplugged from the daily water change the day before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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